Nifty ends flat, FO expiry eyed; JSPL dives 10%, CIL up 5%

Equity benchmarks recouped losses in late trade on support by FMCG, healthcare, power, mining and select technology stocks. The Sensex fell 31 points to 26744.69 (which had shed more than 200 points intraday), while the Nifty declined 15.15 points to 8002.40 ahead of September series expiry.

About 1031 shares have advanced, 1928 shares declined, and 102 shares are unchanged.

Jindal Steel and Power tanked 10 percent after Supreme Court’s verdict on coal block allcoation cast. The apex court cancelled 214 coal blocks and four exempted. Exempted blocks include allocation to Sasan UMPP and allocations to NTPC and SAIL, SC said. Reliance Power was up 5 percent.

Supreme Court added that the government is free to auction all cancelled blocks post March 2015, which is a beneficial to Coal India, the largest coal mining company. The stock was up 5 percent. Attorney General said Coal India will carry out mining activity till auctions held.

SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya said, “We believe that uncertainty is possibly the worst enemy of growth. We are glad that this is over with the SC verdict on coal blocks allocation. We now look forward for a quick plan of action for ensuring that coal supplies are not disrupted and thereafter a swift and transparent bidding process for reallocation.”

03:20pm Crompton bags order

Avantha Group Company Crompton Greaves announced a USD 25 million new contract win for the design, construction and delivery of 16 mobile substations. The order was placed by the General Directorate for Transmission, Upper Euphrates Region, Ministry of Electricity in Iraq.

The key deliverables are engineering and supply of 16 mobile substations containing 31.5 MVA transformers delivered by CG’s power transformer factory in Hungary, auxiliary/earthing units manufactured in the distribution transformer factory in Belgium and control and protection equipment provided by CG’s automation arm ZIV.

03:15pm Titan shares in demand

Titan Company says the board of directors of the company has taken an in-principle decision to spin off the precision engineering division of the company as a wholly owned subsidiary, subject to applicable approvals.

The board also approved the invitation and acceptance of deposits from customers for jewelry purchases under the Companies (Acceptance of Deposits) Rules, 2014.

Jaiprakash Power Ventures said the company’s the draft scheme of arrangement for hiving off Baspa-II and Karcham Wangtoo Hydro Electric Projects of the company to two separate wholly owned subsidiaries, for which approval of the exchanges was obtained on June 13, 2014, has been dropped.

03:00pm Godrej Properties in focus

Godrej Properties says it has sold over 250 apartments, with an area over 400,000 square feet. in just three weeks at the launch of its residential project, Godrej Aria, in Sector 79, Gurgaon.

Spread over 7 acres, Godrej Aria consists of 6 high rise towers and offers 386 apartments across approximately 650,000 sq. ft. of space, it adds.

Rakesh Arora of Macquarie told CNBC-TV18 that Jindal Steel and Power’s penalty amounts to Rs 3,000 crore after Attorney General said Rs 295 per tonne penalty is imposed on all cancelled block holders.

However, he said the impact on Hindalco Industries will be minimal.

02:25pm SC Verdict

Supreme Court order will become operational after 6 months. Attorney General said companies will have to stop production on March 31, 2015. SC says six months period is given for government to make alternate arrangements.

Attorney General said Rs 295 per tonne penalty is imposed on all cancelled block holders. Supreme Court says the government is free to auction all cancelled blocks post March 2015, which is a beneficial to Coal India, the largest coal mining company.

Attorney General says Coal India will carry out mining activity till auctions held

02:15pm Market check: The Sensex is down 134.56 points at 26641.13 and the Nifty is down 47.20 points at 7970.35. About 788 shares have advanced, 2065 shares declined, and 75 shares are unchanged. Hindalco is down 4 percent and JSPL sinks 10 percent.

02:10pm Breaking: Coal Block Allocation: Supreme Court cancels category-1 coal blocks stating there is no reason to save these blocks and allocation are arbitrary. It adds of 218 blocks, only four are exempted.

Don’t miss: Market driven by global cues, bullish on ACC: P Lilladher

The market is under pressure. The Sensex is down 45.52 points at 26730.17 and the Nifty down 17.75 points at 7999.80. About 838 shares have advanced, 1979 shares declined, and 82 shares are unchanged.

HUL, Coal India, Wipro, ITC and Hindalco are up 2 percent each. On the losing side are L&T, Tata Power, BHEL, Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Auto.

Brent crude fell for a third day, slipping further below USD 97 a barrel as inflated supplies and weak economic data from Europe outweighed rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.

The European economic data and a rise in oil exports from Iraq and Nigeria overshadowed a boost from China with Tuesday’s release of a better-than-expected flash Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for September. US air strikes on militants in Syria also failed to lift prices.

Asian markets closed mixed while Europe is trading flat as concerns on global growth and unrest in Syria dominate sentiment.